The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-09-23
TIE LOVE OF TIE WOODS.

The love for the woods is a sign of an
unspoiled man. 1t is the most primitive of
affections. The first men were dwellers
in the woods. The tree trunks were the
first walls, and the branches and the leaves
were the first roof that the human race
ever knew, and the man who has ceased 10
be homesick for the original dwelling of
his ancestors has lost one of the primitive
qualities of his nature. He shows degen-
GRAFTON. His blood is getting thin.
The healthy man, mentally and physical
ly, is either al out-and-out lover of the
woods, or is potentially such. Some men
are woods-lovers without knowing il, Just
as Others are poets without knowingit, and
still others blaeksmiths, who never dream
that nature intended them for the forge.
Circumstances mould more characters than
we give them credit for. But if you take
what should call a complete man,-whose
mental and physical functions are not only
in good working order, but in proper SYM
pathy with each other,-and place him
where his love for nature has an opportun-
ity to express itself, you will find, I say,
that in nine cases out of ten the man whose
pedigree has not been tempered with is a
lover of the woods. Let him once hear the
pines soughing, the brook leaping down
the rocks, and his artiiciality is gone. He
remembers that his ancestor, whether
adorned with eaudal appendage or not,
dwelt among the frees.
Such being the natural affinity of the
race, ! assert that such as still
survive of the original covering Of the
globe have a value far higher and greater
than can be expressed III terms of cord
wood and market quotations. The forests
of a nation stand for so much intellectual
and moral capital. What sort of boys. as
a rule, would they be who grew up without
any practical acquaintance whatever with
the woods? | do Tot know that there are
any such boys in these days; certainly |
hope that there are not. They would ineviti-
ably become either dudes or animals, and /
do not know which is the more to be
dreaded.
/ have confidence in the man or boy who
loves to walk in the woods. ! have a feel
ing that the scholar who takes a ramble
when he can will nave something to say,
n of these days, that the world can afford
to stop and listen to. l nave a sort of in
tuitive belief that the grocer who, of his
own free will, takes his rod and goes out to
fish in a trout brook will not put beans in
his coffee or sand in his sugar.
Furthermore, | consider the love of the
woods a sign of energy. Indolent or lack
adaisicial people take their ease, or NOPE
cheerful people get aboard. When l see a
business man, or a lawyer, or an editor, or
a preacher ont with his gun occasionally,
| look for strong work from the man.
When | see a professor clad IN a blue
flannel shirt, with a broad-heeled shoes on
his feet, coming home from a tramp, l say
to myself: ''That man puts life into his
teaching. When he feels himself getting
into the ruts, he has the energy to lift him.
self out"
| find that it takes something Of a man
to be a rambler; l find also that it makes
something of a man. The love of the
woods invigorates the brain, as the odor
of the balsams invigorates the lungs. Let
a brain-worker devote one day in the
week, if he can, to rambling. Let him go
as far as he can between sunrise and sun
set; let him draw as many b-eaths as he
can of Gods free air, and as deep; let him
keep his eyes, and his heart, and the pores
OF his skin open, and if he does not do
better work for five days to come, ana
more of it, l renounce all confidence in my
powers of observation, both generic and
specific.
Therefore, l say, never discourage the
love of the woods in the young. II this
love goes to undue bounds, let it be re-
strained. Discipline is a good thing in any
department of life; but discipline never
proceeds on the supposition that a thing
is essentially bad. 1t is simply a method
of the pruning things that are good
Paul Pdstnor in Journal of Education.